In the next life
by chazsvp2
Summary: The attraction between the two young men was profound, unexplainable, undeniable. After that Christmas, they were a lot of things, but they weren’t casual anymore...2769 Mukuro x Tsuna


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**In the next life...**

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Mathematical Aphrodisiac

They shared a very casual relationship. Having nothing in common what so ever, no common interests or goals or even ideals, they'd made a mutual agreement to meet up at least once a fortnight to share a room together. Maybe get to know each other a little better, Tsuna had said. Lead separate lives without any commitment worries, Mukuro had agreed. With all the benefits that come with no-strings attached relationships.

It was during one of these visiting days that Tsuna found himself sitting on the floor of Mukuro's lavish living room once again. Late autumn winds howled outside the quiet room as Mukuro sat on the couch, knitting his little sister, Chrome, a hat for the winter, with Tsuna sat at his feet reading 'Fermat's Last Theorem'.

Mukuro never seized to surprise Tsuna. He didn't seem like the type to knit, or give such a personal gift at all, but rather to spend a lot of money on something pretty and indulgent to whomever it was he wanted to dote upon. The hypnotic, fluid motion of his knitting had distracted Tsuna at first, until he noticed that Mukuro wasn't even paying attention to what he was doing with his hands. He was looking up at Tsuna with mismatched eyes, smirking at him in amusement. At that, Tsuna had blushed, and returned to reading his book.

Every now and then, he'd interrupt Mukuro's knitting to read him passages from it. "Did you ever hear of amicable numbers? They're like perfect numbers, but instead of being the sum of their own divisors, they're the sum of each others divisors. In the Middle Ages people used to carve amicable numbers into pieces of fruit. They'd eat the first piece themselves and then feed the other one to their lover. It was a mathematical aphrodisiac. I love that – a mathematical aphrodisiac." Mukuro showed little interest. He didn't like math much. He was a writer. It was one more reason for the two to be casual.

Christmas period fell, and since he hated to shop, Tsuna was glad to be able to cross Mukuro off his shopping list. They were much too casual for presents. And at any rate, he honestly couldn't think of a single item that he could get for the man that he couldn't get for himself. Or hadn't already, for that matter. But while visiting the pet store for treats for his dog, Gokudera, the brightly coloured fish on special offer caught his eye. Mukuro lived alone in his apartment. It was often cold and silent, as opposed to Tsuna's student dorms that he shared with his roomates. He might like the fish, Tsuna thought, and brought a handful of those.

When Christmas rolled around, Tsuna handed Mukuro the fish – unwrapped, very casual. They were electric blue streaked red, the same colour as his mis-matched eyes, Tsuna realised. Mukuro smiled at the gesture and put it on the writing desk in his study, next to his laptop. He didn't give Tsuna anything at all.

He wasn't surprised, but his feelings were a little hurt, even though he wasn't supposed to care. His last minute gift had turned out to be a pretty good one, after all.

The next day, Mukuro invited Tsuna over to his apartment. "I have your Christmas present," he said. "Sorry it's late."

He handed Tsuna an awkwardly wrapped bundle. When he pulled it open, a circle of hand-knit fabric fell onto his lap. He picked it up and looked at it, completely confused. One side of the material had the number 127,155 knitted into it; the other side had 100,690.

When Tsuna looked up at Mukuro again, the man was barely able to contain his excitement anymore. "They're amicable numbers," he said. "I wrote a computer program and let it run for twelve hours or so. The biggest ones I found are the ones double-knitted onto it. It's a pot holder, since I know you like your green tea so much. I could not give it to you last night because I still hadn't figured out how to cast off.

It's kind of geeky, but I thought _you _might like it."

The attraction between the two young men was profound, unexplainable, undeniable. After that Christmas, they were alot of things, but they weren't casual anymore.

The ancient mathematical aphrodisiac had worked again.

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** 'In the next life' is a series of AU's between Tsuna and his guardians. This one is the first of many to come (if it's any good) - I've got the ideas and the time, now I just need the motivation :)**

**They'll be varied in genre from smut, angst, funny, supernatural etc...but always romance!  
**

**Thank-you for reading, I hope you you will enjoy Tsuna's funny love story! **

**Disclaimer: **I don't own KHR, but I am going to mutilate it anyway *big grin* :D

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